Categoría: Uncategorized

The last report of the Special Rapporteur, Koumbo Boly Barry, transmitted to the general Assembly is about equity, inclusion and non-discrimination on education.

The first part of the report consist on the legal definition of these terms according to the human right international legislation.

The special rapporteur recalls that human rights international legislation prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition and birth. The definition and the core of what should be considered discrimination in the field of education is based on the Convention against Discrimination with the right to education, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous People.

Also, the special rapport mentions that it is important to distinguish between equity and equality in education to properly tackle this problematic. Equality refers to treating all students the same. Equity is providing all students with what they need to succeed. Thus, equity implies taking into consideration the social circumstances of each student including ethnic or religious background. As said by the special rapporteur. On this regard she mentions “Respect for diversity should be reflected in curricula, which should be sensitive to the culture and religion for learners”

Inclusive education, according to the report, is about providing the same learning environment for students of diverse background and abilities. It is interesting to observe that Mme. Boly mentions that inclusion has to go beyond disable people and include also the inclusion of students with different linguistic and cultural aspects. It is important to observe that the special rapporteur emphasize a participatory and holistic approach to make inclusion happen. On this regard she mentions “Effective inclusion must be implemented through education laws and policies, and it must also incorporated into the culture and practices, within school”. Besides that inclusion is intrinsically good, the special rapporteur recalls that the outcomes of inclusive education are also really good as they lead to the best learning outcomes of students.

After these definitions, the special rapporteur focuses on the legal definitions and implications that Mme. Boly has to be implemented concerning certain vulnerable groups. She made reference to Women and girls, children with disabilities, poor people, cultural ethnic and linguistic groups, indigenous communities, rural population, refugees, migrants, internally displaced persons, nomadic peoples, Roma children, stateless people and the role of private education. In most of the cases she follows the same methodology. For each particular vulnerable group she mentions the international human rights documents that can concern them; secondly it makes references to the comments concerning discrimination, equity and education made by the Committees and thirdly it mentions good practices and challenges. The followed methodology enables an easy use of it due to its systematization.

The Special Rapporteur warns that the primary responsibility for implementing the right to education as an equitable and inclusive right lies with governments. Nevertheless, the international organizations must provide targeted political, financial and technical support, especially in relation to the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and implement the Education 2030 Framework for action. On this regard, she also recalls the participatory approach of the Education 2030 with the civil society.

Ignasi Grau

Here you can find the full report: http://www.right-to-education.org/sites/right-to-education.org/files/resource-attachments/UNSR_RTE_Inclusion_Equity_2017_En.pdf

A public side event was held on Wednesday June 14, 2017 at the Palais des Nations focusing on Trans-humanism and Cyber-culture, the objective of this event presented by Osman El Hajjé, followed by Juan Garcia, Alfred Fernandez and Alfred de Zayas was to reflect on the relationship between human rights and science and technology. This is of crucial importance when developments in biology, nanotechnology and computers in particular pose fundamental human rights challenges. It is a matter of looking at science in the light of human rights and of placing respect and protection of rights, especially economic, social and cultural rights – especially cultural rights – at the center of sustainable human development.

The Trans-humanism definition, explained deeply by Alfred Fernandez, is a movement to slow aging in the capacity physic. Singularity is the moment when in the years of 2040 to 2080 that technologies will take over the humans. Big companies such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook are investing billions of dollars wanting technologies to regulate global warming and not humans, but it will take over humans eventually.

The topic’s event was chosen due to the fact that there is a huge gap between developing countries and developed countries explained Juan Garcia. Everyday, more and more futuristic robots and technologies are being created in every domain almost starting a technological revolution. More precisely is focus on two domains, which are the organic domain of the human beings; either to make it better or to recreate it. Secondly, the information ad communication technic is creating virtual spaces. Trans-humanism by definition is the social and scholarly advancement development that attests the craving to on a very basic level enhance the human body and its present condition. This is done through procedure of innovation development to upgrade physical and mental limits.

In general, when technologies evolves it only evolves with the communication, however many types of technologies are evolving and creating robots in every domains, as stated earlier. The distinguishing of technology that affects human and science to recreate can already be made.

To conclude, we have seen that everyday the world is advancing as well with its technologies and on how technology is placed in every department with each a very specific ask to follow, now the question to be thought of is, Can trans-humanism and cyber-culture develop it self to a point where we will live in harmony with machines? Or is the development of trans-humanism going too far where robots will control us?

The side event organized by “Edmund Rice International” outlined the situation of the UK policies in the same day in which the UK underwent the UPR (Universal Periodic Review) at the UN.

EPI’s representatives focused on the conditions of refugees in the UK, starting from the consideration of the programs the government has put in action.

The panelists shown that, with regard to the other European countries, the UK receives only the 5% of the total flow of immigrants, number that will easily allow the improvements needed. Nonetheless, wealthy UK finds itself behind poorer countries in the ranking of European States providing quality support to the refugees. In addition, in 2016, 70% of the requests for asylum were refused, either for the absence of a document recognized or the condition of statelessness.

The accepted refugees, according to the regulations, are granted 28 days of accommodation by the government, after which they are left with no house, no employment aid and no support.

From this analysis, ERI recognized a number of charitable safety nets present in England that help refugees through these hard times. Even so, they found that the majority of asylum seekers are marginalized, constantly on the move, living in a limbo with no security or hope for the future.

In April 2017, the British Red Cross published “Can’t stay, Can’t go”, a Report on the condition of asylum seekers in the UK, highlighting how this condition of uncertainty, lack of legal representation and knowledge of the language, is the cause of enormous distress.

The other Report issued by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), “Refugees Welcome?”, focused on the absence of real projects and solutions to address the emergency of refugees. In the document, APPG suggests integrative strategies, English language teaching and to prolong to 50 days the governmental accommodation.

These Reports are in line with the intervention made by the EPI and other member States during the UK session at the UPR. They found though that the answers of the Ministry of Justice to the questions do not mirror the actual situation in the UK.

During the UPR pressure was made to ameliorate the conditions of asylum seekers and their transitions into society; at the same time, the panelists stressed, no attention was given to other very serious issues linked: food poverty and homelessness.

The representative of the “Trussel Trust”, for the elimination of food poverty in the UK, reminded that no data nor attention has been given by the government to address the issue of food poverty. Generally caused by benefit changes and delays, this condition could be easily avoided by governmental interventions and programs.

Homelessness in Northern Ireland is another issue very sensitive and not addressed in the UPR nor by the government. “Welcome” organization’s data show grave marginalization of the problem of a small region with a troubled historical background where the condition of homelessness touches 18,628 persons, 52% of which are single male adults.

In conclusion, the welfare reforms and safety net claimed by the Ministry of Justice at the UPR session, according to the representative of Welcome, cannot be found on the ground. Furthermore, the panelists find necessary for the government to recognize organizations as more than safety net and to implement its project in order to reach the standards set in the international documents that the UK signed.